Belt conveyer.



' Patented Aug. 12, 1919.

3 noauto@ M 2mm; aww

W. K. PAGE.

BELT CONVEYER.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 9. |918.

. narran raras rarer FFQE.

WILLIAM KINGMAN PAGE, 0F GRANGE, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR T0 CHILE EXPLORA-TION CMPANY, OF NEW YGRK, N. Y., A COEPORATIGN OF NEW JERSEY.

BELT CONVEYER.

1,313,1ilil.

Specication of Letters atent.

Application tiled. March 9, 1918. Serial No. 221,350.

To all whom z'z may concern:

Be it known that l, WILLIAM KINGMAN PAGE, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Orange, in the county of Essex, State of NewJersey,.have invented certain new and useful Improvements in BeltConveyers; and l do hereby declare the following to bea ull, clear, andexact description 0i' the invention, such as will enable others skilledin the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

rlhis invention relates to improvements in belt conveyers for conveyingore or other material over long distances.

Where belt conveyers are utilized for conveying material over longdistances it has been found that there is a rapid destruction of thebelt due to the excessive stretch and strain to which it is subjected.lt has been customary to drive such belt conveyers from one or both ofits ends so that the entire load on the belt, and the belt itself, wouldbe pulled from but a single point in the total length of travel. Withbelt conveyers havmg 1000 feet or even more, and with a load on the beltamounting to as much as several` hundred pounds per running foot, in thecase of a belt three feet wide, an excessive stretch and strain is putupon thebelt and alarge amount of power is required at the drivingpulley at the end of the belt. ln

lorder to enable the desired load to be carried for considerabledistances it has been found necessaryto make the belt of correspondin lyincreased strength and thickness. A

ere the material to be conveyed is of a corroding-nature, it tends towork into the' belt and further contribute to the rapid destruction othe belt, this action being promoted by the exeessivestretch and strainto which the belt is subjected.

The difficulty of operating abelt of considerable length in the mannerdescribed is further increased by the friction of the idlers on whichthe conveyer is supported, this friction being increased both by theload on the belt*J and by the-added wei ht of the belt made necessary toprovide or its satisfactory operation. .x

The resent invention relates t6 improvements in. belt conveyers accordinto which the drivin of the conveyer is e ected in a novel and improvedmanner with resulting a belt travel of as much as from 500 to decreasein the stretch and strain applied to the belt and with the substantialavoidance of the objections above noted and increased smoothness ofoperation of the conveyer.

According to the present invention provi- Fatented Aug-12, 1219.

sion is made for driving the main conveyer belt by installing a numberof independently driven auxiliary belts located at various points alongthe main belt and supporting and driving it independently at thesedifferent points alon its line of travel. The invention will be escribedmore in detail 'in connection with the accompanying drawingsillustrative of one embodiment thereof,

in which- -v Fi re 1 shows, diagrammatically, sectionso a belt conveyerembodying the invention; Fig. 2 shows on a somewhat enlarged scalesections of the conveyer of Fig. l; Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken onthe line 3-3 of Fig. 2 5 and Fig; l is a sectional view taken on theline he of Fig. 2.

As indicated in the drawing,.the main conveyer belt is indicated at 1and passes over the end pulleys 2 and 3 which may be rovided withindependent driving means not shown). The main belt is supported alongits upper side by a series of idlers 13, 14 and 15 arranged at regularintervals and' on its return dside by another set of `idlers 16, asillustrated in Figs. 2 and 1. The upper idlers are arranged to give thebelt a trough shape so that it will retain the material shown near the.ends of the belt between the end pulleys 2 and 3 and the series ofidlers 16.

Alon the upper and lower sides of the main'be t are arranged -a seriesof auxiliary belts 6 arranged to pass over auxiliary end pulleys 7 and8` and to be driven by motors or other suitablemechanism 9 at the same.which it is to carry. ldlers l and 5 are l speed as the main belt.v Asillustrated in' A suitable support is" for the different series ofidlers and for the end pulleys of the main belt, as indicatedconventionally in Fig. 2. Provision is also made for tightening the mainbelt and taking up its slack as well as for tightening the auxiliarybelts, one suitable type of tightening device being indicatedconventionally at 11 for the end pullcy 2 and a. similar tighteningdevice at 12 for the end pulley 8 of the auxiliary belt.

The main belt may be arranged to discharge its load at one or moreintermediate places along its line of travel. One such discharge pointhas been illustrated conventionally in Fig. 1 where the main belt passesover the pulleys 18, 19 and 20 and discharges its load on to thecross-belt 21 from which the material can be transferred into storagetanks or;l receptacles or to the desired place of discharge. v

The driving means for the auxiliary belts as above pointed out ,arearranged tol drive the auxiliary belts at the same speed as the mainbelt so that the load of the main belt and the driving thereof will bedistributed. ln the case of electrically operated units, such asillustrated, the motors are designed with approximately identicalcharacteristics and variations in speed from no load to full loadsufficient to insure each motor receiving its proper/proportion of theload with resultant uniform belt tension and smoothness of operation.That is to say, if the load 1s increased unduly at one place along theconveyer, the increased load will tend to make the motor upon which theadded burden is placed run more slowly so that the load will beequalized' by the other motors pulling .more nearly their proportionateshare of the load.

The main belt conveyer may be uni-directional or it may be reversible sothat it will operate in either direction and carry the load from eitherend toward the center or from the center toward either end, as well asbetween intermediate points, in either direction.

The auxiliary belts will be made of a width substantially the same asthat of the main belt which they are to' support and drive.

T he number of auxiliary belts can be varied with the length of the mainbelt'and with the load which it is designed t0 carry. So also thedistance apart of the auxiliary belts will depend upon the load to becarried by the main belt and the length of the auxiliary belts. The`auxiliaryy belts may thus be for example, twenty feet long, in

the case of a belt-.three feet wide, and be arranged from one hundred tofour hundred and fifty feet apart along the main belt.

Auxiliary belts may similarl be provided at one or more points along t ereturn side of the belt where the belt is of excessive length, one suchauxiliary belt being illustrated in Fig. 1.

Where the main belt is to be reversible, the auxiliary belts willsimilarly be reversible and will be driven by reversible motors or byother mechanism which Will provide for driving in either'direction.

As the result of the driving of the main belt in the manner described,according to the present invention, the length of the main belt can bematerially increased while its thickness can be very materiallydecreased, thus effecting a very considerable saving in the cost of thebelt as well as in the weight of the belt which is required forsuccessful operation. .So also there is a materially lessened strain orstretch ofthe main belt so that it is less subject to deterioration. Itis also possible to accommodate the main belt more readily toirregularities, such as elevations or depressions, encountered inconveying material for long distances. It is also possible to carryincreased loads without excessive strain upon the main belt or upon theauxiliary driving belts and their motors, and the load on the belt, aswell as the load of the belt itself, and the frictional resistance onthe idlers (particularly when not properly lubricated), are allequalized and divided up among the various auxiliary driving belts.

The size and construction of the main conveyer belt and of the auxiliarybelts can be varied and will in practice vary with the requirementsofthe conveyer such as the load to be carried and other considerations.Standard types of belt construction now commonly used in similarconveyers are available for use according to the present invention, butthe main belt is not required to be as thick or to withstand suchexcessive strains as are incident to the use of belt c011- veyers in themanner heretofore practised for conveying material over long distances.

It will be'understood that the details of the construction of theconveyer parts, such as the driving mechanism and the supportingmechanism for the belts, can be varied in its details of constructionfrom those conventionally illustrated in the drawing and that variationsin the construction and arrangement of the various parts can be madewithoutY departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

I claim 2- 1. A belt conveyer adapted to convey materials over longdistances comprising a main belt of fibrous material havin an ex cessivelength in proportion to its width and a simultaneous drivingandsupporting action.

2. A belt conveyer of the character described comprising a main belt of'fibrous material driven at its extremities, sald belt .having anexcessive length in proportion to its width and thickness, a pluralityof idlers arranged to support the belt in a trough shape disposed alongthe path of travel of the main belt, and a pluralityof independentlydriven auxiliary belts,`disposed along the path of travel of the mainbelt, said auxiliary belts interposed between the idlers and the mainbelt so as to exert simultaneous driving and supporting action.

3. A belt conveyer of the character described comprising a main belt offibrous material driven at its extremities, said belt having anexcessive length in proportion to its width and thickness, a pluralityof supporting idlers disposed along the path of travel of the undersideof the working surface of the main belt, said idlers adapted to supportthe belt in a trough shape, and a plurality of independently drivenauxiliary belts of fibrous material disposed along the path of travel ofthe working surface of the main belt, said auxiliary belts interposedbetween the idlers and the main belt and adapted to support and drivethe main belt.

4. A belt conveyer` of the character descirbed comprising a main belt ofvfibrous material driven at its extremities, said belt having anexcessive length in proportion to its width and thickness, a pluralityof supporting idlers disposed along the path of travel of the undersideof the working surface of the main belt, said idlers adapted to supportthe belt in a trough shape, a plurality of independently drivenauxiliary belts of fibrous material disposed along the path of travel ofthe working surface of the main belt, said auxiliary belts interposedbetween the idlers and the main belt adapted to support and drive themain belt and a plurality of independently driven auxiliary beltsdisposed along the return path of travel of the main belt adapted tosupport and drive the main belt along the return path of travel.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

WILLIAM KINGMAN PAGE.

